The quote-to-cash process is an end-to-end business process that covers the entire customer lifecycle, including sales processes, order management and billing. In today’s fast-paced economy, the quoting process has moved beyond the basic functionality of a spreadsheet. Customers expect comprehensive and prompt quoting practices from their suppliers.
Business has largely become a first-in, best-dressed scenario.
Organisations are increasingly time-poor. By streamlining the quote-to-cash process, we remove the low-value tasks of repetitive and mundane processes so that sales reps can focus on higher-value tasks such as building and retaining good business relationships. Those who can quote quickly, accurately and efficiently are seeing the strongest sales conversion rates. With this in mind, many businesses are looking for efficiencies in the quote-to-cash process so they can shorten the time they need to get back to their clients.
CPQ software enables organisations to have better control of pricing and the ability to cross-sell or upsell complementary products with ease. It’s customisable and flexible whatever the sales process, and is designed to reduce complexity. Whatever sales channel you use, Cincom CPQ™ will streamline the entire process so that you don’t have to go through three or four types of processes to get to the same end goal. By doing this, you can significantly reduce quote times as well as inaccuracies. Cincom CPQ has been proven to reduce quote times from weeks to days or even hours. Furthermore, if a sales model changes, it is easy for the platform to adapt.
One of Cincom’s strengths is its ability to service customers locally in Australia.
While Cincom is a global company, the company is highly invested in the region. With service and support based in Australia, the company can service customers with personal and tailored support on the ground. Additionally operating across a breadth of industries, Cincom has extensive experience in the logistics and transport industry and works with industry heavyweights such as Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA). TMHA recently selected Cincom CPQ to improve its sales effectiveness and efficiency by automating and streamlining the pricing and quoting of its products and services.
Cameron Paxton, Vice President and COO at TMHA, says, “After an exhaustive process of reviewing various solutions, Toyota selected Cincom due to their alignment with their values, especially in regard to their appetite for kaizen or continuous improvement.”
Cincom and Toyota met at transport and logistics expo, MEGATRANS, last year. Toyota was finding it difficult to find a solutions partner who could quote on both rental and purchase options for its clients, and was impressed with Cincom’s commitment to the materials-handling industry. Cincom’s ability to configure the application and show both options such as lease and purchase was a major priority for Toyota.
With Toyota offering hundreds of products and services, configuring, pricing and quoting is a challenge, and the business had been using an in-house configuration tool created by a dealership it acquired more than 24 years ago. Paxton says that the front end of this in-house solution was fine in allowing them to produce accurate and timely quotations for customers, however, it had been designed for a dealer, not an OEM, so it had limitations, particularly in the back-end support.
The system also lacked integration with TMHA’s ERP, leading to double handling and processing. With hundreds of models of forklifts, as well as sweepers, scrubbers, tow tractors and more, there can be more than 100 possible pricing configurations, so Toyota required a more comprehensive and smart solution. By selecting Cincom CPQ, Toyota will have a higher back-end functionality and will be able to increase accuracy and time with its quotations and pricing.
“At the moment the front end is very, very quick, so we will maintain that. But the back end, which will mean it is more accurate, will increase, and it will cut days off our processing times. If there is a change that needs to be affected, instead of it taking potentially weeks, it will be done within hours,” Paxton says.
It took five years for Toyota to find a solution before selecting Cincom because of the lack of software options that could include both rental and purchase options.
“We believe that Cincom CPQ will serve us into the future and as such, we need a partner who will stand the test of time and be devoted to helping us continue to integrate and refine our processes. We believe Cincom can and will provide that degree of engagement,” according to Paxton.
Cincom’s point of difference is the commitment and support it provides to its customers, and this was a huge factor in TMHA selecting Cincom. Throughout the global pandemic, Cincom has been able to provide the support and customer service Toyota needed to introduce a new software solution during one of the most challenging times for businesses around the world.
About Cincom
As a global leader in configure-price-quote (CPQ), Cincom’s solutions are geared towards enhancing organisation’s capabilities, optimising processes and delivering a better experience for customers. With a mission to ensure that its customers are able to win and retain more business, Cincom has a suite of software solutions that is designed to help businesses operate more efficiently and effectively.
For more information, contact James McDougall, Business Development Manager, on +61 408 488 709, or visit www.cincom.com.
